HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY YEAR A. (5)

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY YEAR A.

THEME: THE MOST HOLY TRINITY: MODEL FOR UNITY THROUGH SANCTITY.

BY: Fr Andrew Ekpenyong,

1. Joke. Today’s 1st reading (Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9) allows for a contemporary cloud-computing joke: that technically, Moses was the first man in history to download data from the cloud to his tablet. Jokes aside, and more interestingly, some of the data of God’s revelation to Moses and the Israelites are already accessible to every human beings by observation and intuition. Regarding God’s nature, there is a convergence of observation, intuition, and Divine revelation. There is one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In one word, “Trinity”! That God is Trinity is at the bedrock of Judeo-Christian revelation as found in Sacred Scripture. Our Lord commanded: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit….” (Matt 28:19). Today’s 2nd reading (2 Cor 13:11-13), reassures us that the God of love and peace is with us to help us live in peace and the Holy Trinity is invoked upon us: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Cor 13:13). We use this invocation at the start of Mass. We often begin and conclude our prayers with the sign of the Cross which invokes the Most Holy Trinity by word and by gesture. We are immersed in the Trinity!

2. Revelation. No amount of human intuition, philosophical reflection, or scientific research would have enabled us to arrive at the conclusion that there is One God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was revealed to us. Of course, human reason alone can reflect on creation and conclude that there must be one God who is Creator, “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28). In fact, such conclusion is expected: “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made” (Rom 1:19-20). The Church echoes this message: “The existence of God the Creator can be known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason….” (CCC 286). But of the inner nature of God, our reasoning needs help. God revealed to us God’s inner nature. And the process of revelation was long, and sometimes “unbearable” as our Lord cautioned: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” (Jn 16:12). God’s revelation of God’s inner nature leaves us not in confusion but in awe, not in darkness but in overwhelming light too bright for our present eyes that we describe such revelation as mystery: “Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion” (1 Tim 3:16). Of what use then is such revelation? Revelation leads to and enhances our worship. This is what happened to Moses in today’s 1st reading. Following God’s self-communication to him: “Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.” (v.8) It enhances our worship of God even now. No wonder we recite the sublime revealed truths about God’s nature at every Sunday Mass in the long Creed (Nicene Creed) or even more routinely whenever we pray, whenever we make the sign of the Cross, and so on. Through worship and awe at God, the revelation we have received also leads to our sanctity and salvation. That is the essence of today’s Gospel reading (Jn 3:16-18).

3. Unity through Sanctity. God’s revelation presents us with the gift of salvation wrapped with faith as a task: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) The gift is given out of God’s love. The task is to unwrap it, to own it and share it. Unfortunately, whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver as the Latin adage holds: “quid quid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur”. So finite and fallen human beings receive God’s perfect gift of salvation imperfectly and share it imperfectly. Fortunately, the Most Holy Trinity serves as the model of perfection. The perfect unity of the Trinity, three divine persons, one divine nature beckons us to unity through sanctity. The absolute equality of the three distinct divine persons calls us not just to unity in diversity but to unity through sanctity. Because we are human, finite and sinful, differences between us can and do lead to disunity, a sense of superiority or inferiority and inequality. Hence, the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity shines forth as a mystery drawing us to mend our ways and live in peace as Paul wrote in today’s 2nd reading (2 Cor 13:11). The absolute equality of the Blessed Trinity shines forth as a mystery drawing us to sanctity, in which our identity is not tied to any sense of superiority over any other human being, or any sense of inferiority before any other human being but is tied to that unifying identity that connects us to the Blessed Trinity. It is the identity of being children of God and citizens of Heaven. To God be the glory.

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